Sports After Dark

I recently had the chance to interview Morne from Ruggaworld, one of South Africa’s top rugby blogs, about his thoughts on South African rugby headed into the World Cup

What are your views on the resting of 20 top Springbok players for the last two Tri-Nations tests?

Jake White has been on about resting the top Springboks from the time he took charge and his reasoning is supported or actually based on one of the leading Sport personalities in the medical field, Professor Tim Noakes of the Sport Science Institute in Cape Town.

That said I believe the only thing that ever mattered to White was the World Cup, from the time he was appointed – and resting his players in the Tri-Nations is nothing more than risk-management. You have to understand that Jake is essentially a rugby analyst – this is his claim to fame when it comes to coaching at higher levels. Now as an analyst myself (a couple of years back) I understand Jake’s thinking completely – not necessarily agreeing with it – but I understand it. Coaches like Jake who comes from the background have a very logical or linear approach to the job and everything is based on risk, and how to minimize it. In Jake’s mind playing Os, John, Matfield, Schalk, Fourie, Habana, De Villiers, Jaque Fourie and Percy so close to the World Cup presented tremendous risk from an injury perspective.

The problem is compounded because Jake in his tenure has never really worked on back-ups to these players and in essence, put all his eggs in one basket. If these guys or a couple of them got injured before the World Cup, Jake’s dream is over and that is too high a price to pay. Schalk’s injury last year, John’s injuries in the last year, Fourie du Preez’s and Habana’s injuries obviously drove home this reality to Jake, and as anyone could see the players that has to step up in those individual’s places are no-where near the level to compete at the World Cup with any hope of success.

The general feeling in South Africa is mixed. You have the school of thought that believes momentum is key and then you have the school of thought that suggests it is an unnecessary risk looking ahead to the World Cup. One also has to consider the games these guys already played. The majority of our first choice Boks comes from the Bulls and Sharks franchises, and apart from resting an odd player here and there during the Super 14 campaign, most of these guys played 15 matches. Add to this the tests against England and the two opening Tri-Nations games and you sit on close to 20 games this season already. The biggest fear then of course is that when it comes to the semi-finals and finals you don’t want players who have played close to 28 or 29 games and are physically out of it.

In all honesty the All Blacks (resting players in the Super 14) and the Australians (very limited player numbers of high quality) cannot afford to do this right now. The thing Jake will claim is that his match-day 22 has been finalized in his head months ago if not last year already – and he will see this as a victory over the All Blacks who still struggles with combinations especially in their backline.

Personally I think the All Blacks approach is better to rest players earlier and build momentum going into the World Cup, but then again the All Blacks does not have the injury concerns hanging over their heads if one of their front-line players gets injured, your backup is class as where ours is sub-standard.

The resting of players had nothing to do with answering any questions for White as was claimed, it was a simple risk management exercise to get maximum gain in the World Cup – it is then clear as-well that the Tri-Nations and Mandela Plate and meant nothing to White this year.

As the Springboks received five yellow cards in four Tri-Nations games, do you think discipline will be a problem at the World Cup?

Discipline will cost the Springboks the World Cup, simple as that. It is really shocking to see the amount of yellow cards and simple transgressions our players still commit at this level and if I had to pick one aspect of our game that will deny South Africa glory this year it is this. There is obviously a school of thought here that the South Africans are ‘victims’ of bad refereeing which in my book holds no water, I simply believe we are not clever enough and more importantly, cannot assess referees on the day and ‘get on their side’ so to speak which is also a leadership thing.

South Africans, especially players, still take the field thinking the referee is the enemy and not as someone they have to sum up quickly and play according to the way he controls the game. It is largely a personality issue with our players but also as I mentioned bad leadership of each individual, and of the captain.

Word from the camp is though that they believe the game and certain aspects of the game will be controlled very differently at the World Cup. It has even been said that the way the All Blacks currently compete at the breakdown will be their downfall as the game is generally refereed differently in the Northern Hemisphere where this aspect of the game specifically is much slower, and controlled (or refereed) to be slower too.

Is there any concern in South Africa that Jake White seems reluctant to use his reserves while most other teams give all 22 players some game time?

I think this comes back to back-up players yet again and the confidence White has shown in players outside his golden 15 over the last 3 years.

There is such a huge gap in playing ability in crucial positions (hooker, lock, scrumhalf, flyhalf and fullback) that substitutions made in a game never improves or strengthens the team but is rather done because it is forced or on the clock (fitness). I am also of the opinion that there is absolutely no in-game analysis done by the coaching staff and therefore no tactical substitutions made – the Boks bring plan A to the park and nothing else really.

But the main concern is apart from our props the back-up players have hardly played at test level consistently for the coaching staff to be assured they will make a huge or positive impact. Where the rest of the world and especially the All Blacks come to the match with 22 players, the Boks come with 15 which is why we lose test matches in the last 10 to 20 minutes.

In my mind we have 2 or 3 really good impact players, Skinstad, Spies and Rossouw (Danie) with AJ probably being the best but he has now retired. Our problem lies with the backline though.

Is there a feeling the Springbok players are not given a fair go by the referees?

Of course, the whole world is against us!!! No in all seriousness though it is something bred out of the media in South Africa to a huge extent. I do believe the standard of refereeing this year was generally poor from the Super 14 and the internationals played so far, but to suggest that there is one huge conspiracy against the Boks is ridiculous.

If one actually analyse the game closely you will see that referees are not one sided as badly as suggested by certain fans and the media, I will however say this, referees are definitely influenced by the home crowd and tend to be more lenient to the home side or perceived stronger side.

I do believe South Africans play the ref wrong though. What they do not realize is that the ref, as the players they play against, need to be analysed or assessed as the game goes on and to adapt your game according to how he blows the game or officiates. New Zealand and even more so Australia with Gregan plays the referee brilliantly. Sean Fitzpatrick was of course a genius in this department.

A referee, like a player, comes with a personality and a way of doing things, all of them are different and you need to have a game-plan for the referee too, South Africa does not do this. What they try and do is intimidate the referee in the manner they speak and approach referees or the ‘Matfield stare’ and no professional ref likes that.

After the series win against England, is there any way that the Springboks will not win pool A at the World Cup?

I can say this much, those guys better not come home if they do not end top of their pool or in other words beat England, especially White. Nothing in World Cup is a given but coming off a test win at Twickenham, our first in a long time and a convincing series win in SA, it is expected.

Everything indicates however we should win that one.

If the World Cup final is played between New Zealand and South Africa, what would the Boks need to change to turn around their recent performances?

Jake puts quite a lot of emphasis in the tight phases and specifically line-outs. Although these departments are crucial they are not as important as ball retention and specifically quick recycling at the rucks. Rucking is a major problem in South African rugby, firstly the ball-carriers body positions are atrocious and secondly the support leaves a lot to be desired. There is also almost no aggression at the rucks which sees sides like New Zealand effectively counter-ruck against us. Players do the initial clean and then simply stand over the ball and worst of all they do not look at the opposition in this situation.

Quick ruck ball will see players like Habana and JP Pietersen becoming a lot more involved with the game which is what we need.

That said however, the Boks can beat any team, including the All Blacks on any given day. I just think we rely too much on passion and brute strength to win and not enough brains.

I would like to see substitutes introduced better as-well. If a player like even Montgomery does not play well on the day there is no reason to keep him on the park for 70 minutes, take him off after 40 or 50.

Our strength is our defense, and defense does win you World Cups no matter who says what – but you cannot tackle for 80 minutes and hope to win a game. We give away possession too easily and I would like to see less kicking with no purpose – kicks must find touch and be chased well if it is attempted.

What I will say is that no matter how badly we performed in the Tri-Nations, there is a lot of belief in the country and in the team. Everyone, including players from 1995 believe it is our best chance to win the World Cup – they rate it better than what they rated our chances in 1995.

I will even put my own head on the block here in saying that if we do reach the final, we will win it – but personally I think an exit at the semi’s will be our destiny.

A big thanks to Morne for his excellent analysis of the Springboks from a South African perspective. Be sure to check out Ruggaworld for more news, views and opinions from the Republic,

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The A view on the World Cup from South Africa by Hamish McBrearty, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.